Contents

Intro

Our purpose is to explore the realm of computational physics and physical tendancies through acoustical perception. In our inate desire to explore who we are and where we come from, physicists have explored the cosmos as far as light and the age of the universe will allow for answers. From data gathered at the furthest spectrum of the universe such as the Cosmic Microwave Background (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/) to relatively close phenomena, a standard model is devised in order for us to understand what we observe and why. Through observational Astro-physics, data from telescopes and satalites are systematically collected to confirm and converge to coefficients in our physical models as well as tendancies certian systems. Computational Astrophysicists then recreate and simulate these systems in order to test the stability and consistency of these models. Within this process, we attempt to create meaningfull sonification techniques of these simulations in 3-dimensional spatialized sound in order to better understand the physical tendancies not easily seen with current Visualization techniques.

Computational Astrophysics

What is Computational Astrophysics?

Computational astrophysics is the simulation of astrophysical phenomena on a computer by numerical integration of the relevant governing equations. Such simulations produce detailed solutions to highly complex problems in stellar evolution, galactic dynamics, numerical cosmology, and many other fields.

Which simulations?

The simulation data we are going to use is from Laboratory for Computational Astrophysics at UCSD(http://cosmos.ucsd.edu/) directed by Michael Norman. I highly recommend you visit is webcite, he has created the first simulation of the formation of the first in the universe that was published in the cover of Time Magazine. We are going to develop sonification techniques through data mapping of simulation experiments done by his graduate student Dave Collins (http://lca2.ucsd.edu/~dcollins/Research/). Later we hope to be able to adapt this technique to all other simulations.

Computer Music

Sonificatiion Technique

The software we will be using for sonification playback is Pure Data(PD) (http://www-crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html) created by Miller Puckette currently Associate Director of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA). PD will be the interface that we will use to reparameterize the simulation data into various sonic and spatialization tools.